Download or read book Rules and Rights in the Middle East written by Ellis Goldberg and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "As a whole, the book demonstrates that neither the region's overgrown state structures nor the corresponding weakness of autonomous societal organizations can be explained by referring to cultural characteristics of the people in the Middle East or to the precepts of their religions. True explanations, the authors argue, should be framed historically. They pay special attention to the relations among the various groups and regions of the Middle East and to those between the Middle East and western Europe. The authors emphasize the important role played by economic issues and constraints in broadening or narrowing the scope of democracy at various points in time; and finally, they are in agreement in seeing religion and culture of the Middle East not in static and essentialist terms but as dynamic phenomena that grow independently and even in opposition to existing political authorities."--BOOK JACKET.